Semoball

High School Basketball Forum: Sikeston vs Henry County, TN

Posted by Rocket689 on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 8:42 AM:

Sikeston travels to Paris, TN to play Henry County on Saturday. Does anyone know anything about Henry County? They came to Sikeston last year and Sikeston hammered by 40+. It was probably the best all around game Sikeston played last year....IMO. I have a hunch that Sikeston will win Saturday, but will get a better game. Thoughts????

Replies (19)

  • Maxpreps has them listed at 8-8 with a 25pt win over Caruthersville in the Eiffel Tower Shootout.

    -- Posted by Crash Davis on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 8:58 AM
  • Thanks, Crash. I always forget about that website.

    -- Posted by Rocket689 on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 9:02 AM
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    Charleston played at Henry County 2 years ago. The officiating in TN is a little different than Missouri; I've never seen so many offensive fouls called in a game; I mean LOTS of offensive fouls (both jayvee and varsity). I'm sure Coach Wilkins coaches his team accordingly as most of the offensive fouls were against Charleston; however, Henry County did receive some, too....so, I don't mean to imply that Charleston got hosed by the officials...just a different style.

    -- Posted by birdfan on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 9:55 AM
  • I think the team is expecting a different style of officiating. I'm sure it will be much different than the SEMO area. When they came over here last year, I think they were shellshocked at Sikeston's speed and aggressive, physical defense....IMO. I think Charleston or any other physical SEMO team would have beat them last year.

    -- Posted by Rocket689 on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 10:02 AM
  • I would assume that the officiating will very similar to the way Charleston and Sikeston got treated when they played at Marion and other various out of state venues.....Birdfan, did Charleston kinda get the "out of state" treatment like Sikeston did playing there? I know that's one reason Sikeston got away from those types of tourneys...

    -- Posted by barkleyfan on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 10:19 AM
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    Can Sikeston really afford to take a trip all the way to Europe? I hear the kids over in France a really good

    -- Posted by EaZyE on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 12:02 PM
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    Charleston used to be a regular entry in the Massac County Superman Classic in Metropolis. The annual treatment started with the pairings; the host team always got the easy road to the finals and Charleston had an extremely tough draw every year. Then, the officiating seemed a little one-sided, as well, especially in the title game when it was usually Massac County-Charleston. Not to mention, the $10 per head entry fee to get into a session; Charleston finally wised up and got out of the tourney.

    I can't remember if Charleston played Henry County, last year, or not. They were on the schedule for a Saturday afternoon game but it may have been cancelled due to weather; I just can't remember. If it was held, I didn't attend.

    -- Posted by birdfan on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 12:25 PM
  • They did play last year. I spoke with Coach Wilkins from Henry County after the game. He coached at Kelly and Parma, before going to Troy, and retiring. He said Sikeston came out and "Hit them in the Mouth" and the players couldn't deal with it. We'll see if they are a little tougher this year.

    -- Posted by chem1 on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 12:42 PM
  • Yes, there is a reason all the Missouri teams quit playing in the Superman Classic. Sikeston was in that thing for 12 years. As birdfan said, they pair up the Missouri teams against the juggernauts and the host school has the easiest path, not to mention you'd just get hosed every game. One by one Charleston, NMCC, Caruthersville, and then finally Sikeston all wisened up and get the heck out of there. Even Notre Dame got in it for one year in Paul Hale's first year there.....he said, "I'm never coming back over here again!"

    -- Posted by semohoops on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 2:30 PM
  • Henry County played Sikeston last year but they did not play Charleston. That game got snowed out.

    -- Posted by semohoops on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 2:31 PM
  • Henry County, a class 3 of 5, is a smaller school than Sikeston. They hav a 8-8 record. Their national rank is 5,620. Think of as being better than Oak Ridge (6,819), but not as good as Oran (4698), Leopold(5062) or Advance(4839). Should easily be up 30 by half if pressing.

    -- Posted by theprof on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 4:45 PM
  • See the article regarding Soldan at Henry County. It should give some insight to what to expect from the officials.

    -- Posted by rocketsbro on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 5:55 PM
  • Got to watch the SCC game at Henry Co. Shootout this year and the officiating is much of same that Birdfan is referring to from 2 years ago when Charleston played over there. First time I can recall that Otto had 4 fouls early in the 3rd qtr. Most of Porters fouls, if not all of them, were Offensive fouls. SCC's bench even got charged a technical foul(I believe Coach Cookson might have picked it up, never actually heard what/who drew the foul). One of the Henry County School officials also told me that TN has different rules as far as how they enforce the coach's box. Needless to say the game will be called much differently.

    Coach Wilkins is also a member of the Missouri Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame to add to chem1 post. Coach Lennis McFerren is also the Head Principal at Henry County.

    *Note* If you plan on going to the game keep in mind that the bridge from Charleston to Cairo at US 62/60 is closed. You either have to travel across the bridge on 57 and then drive through Cairo to cross over into KY or take 55 to Dyersburg and then drive towards Paris. The 55 route is the longer of the two. You can always take the Dorena Hickman ferry if you wanted, provided that it's opened.

    -- Posted by USC_2860 on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 9:43 PM
  • Theprof, your information is not accurate. Henry County is actually a larger school than Sikeston, by one student. Henry County's enrollment is 1,053 and Sikeston is 1,052 But you are correct that they are a AAA school out of five.

    I would classify Henry County are stronger than all the schools you listed. They defeated Caruthersville 75-50 this season and I don't think any school you listed could pull that off. Granted, it was AT Henry County and as people have said, you are battling eight instead of five.

    -- Posted by semohoops on Wed, Jan 12, 2011, at 11:56 PM
  • Some more information I found out. Henry County's class, AAA, is the largest in Tennessee by enrollment. They also have two other classes that are private schools only in AAAA and AAAAA by my understanding.

    -- Posted by semohoops on Thu, Jan 13, 2011, at 9:22 AM
  • Henry County is AAA in TN. That is the biggest class. Caruthersville didn't have a starter (injury) for that game and they had 3 kids foul out. Soldan (STL) went over there to TN and got 8 technicals called on them. SCC went over there and Porter got in foul trouble, which never happens. They just call it much tighter in TN and Sikeston won't get any calls. But Henry County is a good team with some size. They have a 6'7 junior getting recruited by a lot of people and a 6'4 freshman who is very good.

    -- Posted by bootheelhooper on Thu, Jan 13, 2011, at 1:28 PM
  • Here is the article about Soldan...

    The Soldan boys basketball team has forfeited three victories and its championship trophy from the Poplar Bluff Tournament held last month.

    The top-ranked team in the STLhighschoolsports.com small-schools rankings and No. 4 in Missouri Class 4, Soldan's record falls from 12-2 to 9-5.

    The forfeits stem from a game that Soldan lost 90-84 to Dyer County (Tenn.) on Dec. 18 at the Eiffel Tower Shootout at Henry County High School in Paris, Tenn. In that game, Soldan received eight technical fouls. Coach Justin Tatum and junior forwards Paul McRoberts and Kawan Griffin were ejected after each received two technicals.

    Under Missouri State High School Activities Association rules, players or coaches ejected from a game must sit out the next contest.

    Tatum and the ejected players participated in the next three games on Soldan's schedule, all of those at the Poplar Bluff Tournament, which was played Dec. 28-30. MSHSAA guidelines call for the forfeiture of all games until the suspension is served. Tatum, McRoberts and Griffin sat out of last Friday's 68-56 win over Miller Career Academy and Tatum will not coach in his team's next game, Thursday at Sumner.

    The team will be eligible moving forward.

    "I don't think we got done fairly at all," Tatum said. "Yes, my team had eight technical fouls, but we didn't deserve one of them.

    "My kids who worked so hard to win the Poplar Bluff tournament are having it taken away for something they didn't do."

    Tatum said he was not aware that the MSHSAA rule applied to players being ejected from games played out of state. He added that he had to coach in Poplar Bluff because his assistant coach was not able to make that trip.

    MSHSAA spokesman Jason West said the rules were applied fairly. "You are supposed to sit out the next contest at that level," West said. "The only exception as far as MSHSAA bylaws go is if the person is a senior and that is the final contest of that sport and there is no next contest."

    Tatum said he is waiting on letters from event organizers at Henry County High School that supported his claim that Soldan's technical fouls, and therefore the ejections, were unwarranted.

    "I don't see how they can take the games from us or suspend me for the time they have because they didn't receive the documents until Jan. 2," Tatum said.

    Tatum detailed each of the eight technical fouls to STLhighschoolsports.com during a 30-minute phone interview Wednesday. Among the technicals were two for players dunking in warm-ups before the second half, two for taunting, and one on the team's scorer for approaching the scorer's table to ask for clarification on which player a foul was charged to.

    One of the tournament officials who wrote a letter of support on Soldan's behalf was Henry County basketball coach Mitch Wilkins, who coached at Troy Buchanan for 23 years before taking the job in Tennessee.

    "It was basically a situation of a very, very overzealous official that wanted to make sure everybody in the gym knew he was in control that day," Wilkins said. "You run into officials that can bait you into losing your composure, and that's what happened that day."

    Wilkins, who is in his fifth year at Henry County, have written letters of support for Soldan, as has the Henry County athletics director and principal, Wilkins said.

    "Were the Soldan kids angels? No," Wilkins said. "Did I think they were unruly kids? Not at all. I thought they were well-behaved. The coach did not at one time do anything that I thought should have deserved a technical foul."

    Tatum, who won a state championship at CBC and then continued his career at St. Louis University, isn't the only one aggravated by what happened in Tennessee and the subsequent forfeits.

    "I'm frustrated that MSHSAA is penalizing them to the extent that they are," Wilkins said. "I think that's above and beyond."

    -- Posted by bootheelhooper on Thu, Jan 13, 2011, at 1:32 PM
  • According to MSHSAA guidelines any player or coach ejected must sit out the next contest at that level. Being out of state has no bearing at all. Regardless if the coach thought it was excessive to give him a technical he must sit out. Players dunking in warmups is a nono and a technical foul automatically and if the coach was present he has to take some accountability. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. Hopefully Coach Tatum and his players will learn from this experience and get this behavior out of their system before playoff time. 8 or 10 technicals whichever it was is unheard of, it had to be really poor actions by the coach and players, an overzealous official, or a combination of both. Anybody that travels out of state or out of their area needs to be able to adjust to the officiating conditions or don't travel. Its part of the human side of athletics and however flawed it is reality..

    -- Posted by semo ref on Thu, Jan 13, 2011, at 2:05 PM
  • I don't buy the fact the coach did think any of the T's were warranted. Everybody knows you can't dunk during pregame or warm-ups of the second half. If you do it's a technical and the kids know that too. I remember for years watching guys in the SEMO area try to sneak a few dunks in before the refs made it out to the court. A few times it worked and then there were times it didn't and your team was charged a T.

    I don't know, I just don't buy the fact that the coach didn't feel any of the technical fouls were warranted. Now the one the scorekeeper picked up for asking a question, WOW!!! I would have gotten kicked out of the game for that one, but that's the same style of officiating that you'll see this Saturday. I've been their twice now and it's always been that way.

    -- Posted by USC_2860 on Thu, Jan 13, 2011, at 2:19 PM

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